


golden hours

by orphan_account



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hogwarts, Marauders' Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 19:01:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14171445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: It's nearing the end of seventh year and the war is approaching. But for now, Remus can just enjoy what time he has left with his friends.





	golden hours

It was a nice Sunday morning at Hogwarts and Remus and Lily had been in the library for a couple of hours already. It was a bit of a routine with them, ever since Lily and James finally got together and they became friends. Nobody else they knew was that keen to be doing schoolwork bright and early on Sundays but they worked well together. Even though they’d been attending Hogwarts for six years already, the excitement and gratitude for being able to attend such a school hadn’t worn off for either of them. Lily was still just as excited as ever that magic existed, if a little more wary of the darker sides of it and Remus was just glad he had a spot at the school, as he had grown up thinking he wouldn’t.

And so, now, even with a war brewing and the knowledge that as soon as they graduated they would be joining the fight against Voldemort and his Death Eaters, schoolwork was a top priority for them. It provided a bit of normalcy. Something to think about aside from their possible torture and death.

Remus sighed, tapping the feathery end of his quill on the desk. “Have you finished the Potions essay?”

Lily glanced up from her own page, where she was slowly writing out what looked to be Arithmancy notes. “I finished it a couple days ago. Having trouble?”

“Potions just doesn’t come naturally to me, Lils,” Remus said. “I can’t think of enough to write about. I’ve got a topic and everything. But it has to be so long.”

“Hmmm, why don’t you let me look it over? I can tell you if there’s anything super obvious you’re missing,” she said with a teasing grin, though clearly still saying it with the desire to help.

Remus was too annoyed and frustrated at the work to care about the slight teasing and only handed over his parchment gratefully. “Anything you could tell me would be great.”

She set to work reading through what he had written so far and Remus took the opportunity to take a break. He needed one anyway. His brain was tired and the sunlight was streaming in the window so intoxicatingly. It was making their usual table by the window feel warm and his brain a little fuzzy. He checked his watch as he waited; it was just gone half past ten. Maybe if they just gave up on work for the day, they’d be able to get a second breakfast. He wouldn’t say no to more food, though they had agreed that working until noon was smart with the amount of work they had. Noon was also about the time that James usually started getting antsy, which meant that one or both of them would probably end up roped into doing something or other.

He stared out the window, lost in his thoughts. The longer he left his thoughts to wander freely, the darker they got. He couldn’t help but think about what he would doing after he finished school. He already knew what he would almost undoubtedly end up having to do. He was a werewolf, which was an asset their side couldn’t afford to throw away. Which meant that he would have to go and… infiltrate other werewolves. He was one of them, technically, but had always been afraid of them. It would also mean leaving his friends behind. James was planning on marrying Lily but Remus didn’t think he’d be able to be there when the ceremony took place. He’d probably be gone already. There wasn’t any time to lose. Voldemort didn’t care about Remus’s best friends’ wedding.

The omnipresent weight on his chest seemed to get heavier as he thought. The sun still shone in warmly but it seemed a lot less peaceful now. The darkness would reach in and ruin his life regardless of the weather outside. Even now, as he struggled to write a Potions essay, Dark forces were doing…something.

“Your paper’s not bad, Remus,” Lily said, startling him out of his thoughts. He turned his attention to her. “I think you should just expand on your first point here, about the different uses of gemstones? You just kind of group them all together when you could have an entire paragraph for each sapphire, ruby, and emerald.”

“Okay, thanks,” Remus said, smiling tightly. Now that he’d allowed himself to consider the future and the gathering darkness in the world, it was hard to turn it off, though he tried to shift his thoughts back to focus.

Lily handed his parchment back with a small smile of her own. They didn’t say anything but they both knew. No one could escape the coming war.

They worked in silence for a while, the only sounds the rustling of paper and scratching of quills. Remus made the necessary adjustments to his essay, hitting the required length easily once he considered all the possible examples he could include. It was just a matter of expanding on points he’d already made, so it wasn’t too difficult.

He took a break to stretch, looking up past Lily’s shoulder to see James, Sirius, and Peter approaching, all three looking altogether too large, messy and out-of-place in the library. It seemed like the only reason any of them entered the library was to torment the more studious two of their group. “Don’t look now but James is trying to sneak up on you,” Remus said under his breath.

Lily rolled her eyes, looking behind her anyway. “Hey,” she said in a voice as loud as she dared in the library.

“Moony, why’d you have to tell her?” James crowed, far too loud for the library. The three arrived, collapsing into the other chairs at their table. James greeted Lily with a kiss, while Sirius nodded his hellos, leaning back in his seat so that it balanced on two legs.

“Have you two been sitting here all morning?” Sirius asked. “You two should get out more.”

“We’ve already been to Honeydukes,” Peter piped up.

James shot him a glare. “You’re not supposed to tell them that. It was supposed to be a surprise.”

“I hope you left money,” Lily said, knowing full well that ‘going to Honeydukes’ meant sneaking into the basement and taking what they wanted from the storerooms.

“Of course, of course. We’re not thieves,” James said.

“Speak for yourself, James,” Sirius said. Remus let the comment slide, knowing full well that it was (most likely) a joke and the only people Sirius was likely to have stolen from were his parents.

“Anyways, I got you chocolate, Lily. You’re studying too hard and you deserve something nice,” James said. He sounded ridiculous but also sincere.

Remus couldn’t help but laugh a bit at that, but tried his best to stifle it. Sirius seemed to be the only one who noticed, sending one of his characteristically wild grins at him in response. James was ridiculous when it came to Lily. At least he would take care of her. They’d be a sickeningly sweet married couple.

Before Remus knew it, James was stealing his study buddy away from him and Peter was off for a detention with McGonagall (he was caught skipping; poor guy ended up getting in trouble for all the same things the rest of them were doing).

“Do you want to get some work done?” Remus asked, hoping Sirius would say yes so that he might actually pass some of his classes, but knowing that Sirius wasn’t going to willingly choose to do any work until it was the night before it was due.

“Nah, I’m good. You should take a break though. You look all stressed out.” Sirius went through Remus’s work absentmindedly as he spoke, picking up pieces of parchment to glance over before putting them back down. In the space of about two seconds, he managed to turn Remus’s neat organization into chaos.

“Can you actually…not do that?” Remus said, reaching out a hand to forcefully stop Sirius’s own.

“If you wanted to hold my hand, you should’ve just said so!” Sirius exclaimed, wiggling his fingers as much as he could in Remus’s grasp.

Remus let go, a faint blush spreading over his face. He knew Sirius was just teasing and would say the same to anyone, but somewhere inside he also knew that he did actually want to hold Sirius’s hand. It would never happen though, obviously. He always had to keep reminding himself of that. Sirius didn’t like him in that way. “Just sit quietly or go somewhere else. I want to get this work done.”

“Oh, c’mon Moony! It’s a beautiful day! We could go outside,” Sirius suggested.

Remus shook his head.

Sirius pouted. “C’mon, please? You’re no fun. I could be suggesting we cause a ruckus somewhere, you know.”

“Yes and then I’d have to put a stop to it,” Remus said, pulling the prefect card. He only ever did remind his friends of his powers or threaten to use them when it was convenient for himself. When he was in the right mood, he’d let anything they did slide.

“I won’t give you your present until you stop working.”

Remus raised his eyebrows. “Present?”

Sirius shrugged. “Yeah, present. It’s back in our room.”

“I’m intrigued but I also know it’s probably something stupid.”

“Okay, it’s just something from Honeydukes but chocolate is great. You love chocolate!”

Remus chuckled. “Okay I do love chocolate.”

“So you’re done working then?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“I’ll just bother you until you put your stuff away.”

“Fine! Fine, I’ll leave.” Remus began shoving all of his things back in his bag, secretly glad to be done work for the day. He’d been more distracted than focused for a while anyway. “But just for the chocolate.”

“Yeah, yeah of course. You don’t want to hang out with me at all,” Sirius said, slinging an arm over Remus’s shoulders as they began to walk back to their dormitory.

Remus hummed in agreement, thinking about the chocolate but also extremely aware of the heat coming from Sirius and his proximity. His arm was heavy across his shoulders and it was hard to walk so close together with all of his school things as well. Remus wouldn’t want it any other way though. “Just in it for the chocolate,” he echoed.

“Can we go outside though, Moony? It is a nice day and I want to try to find the giant squid,” Sirius said as they walked.

“Yes, alright, fine,” Remus agreed finally. Though he knew he should spend a bit more time working, he was secretly not at all upset about being dragged away from his books.

There was only so much more time for them at Hogwarts. They wouldn’t be able to just go out to the lake and waste a nice afternoon lolling in the sunshine. They only had so much time before they graduated and then nothing would be the same. Remus would be off somewhere, using his status as a werewolf to spy on their enemies and Sirius would be somewhere else doing…something.

They were still just kids but would soon be grown. Too soon. But for now, they could be excited about chocolate and afford to spend an afternoon doing nothing at all. War was coming but it hadn’t arrived yet.

For now, Remus would just be happy to be in the moment with his friends. They were all that really mattered to him, after all.


End file.
